TNAG-0890-FCO40-1100-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 94

CONFIDENTIAL

I

Mr. R. J. T. McLaren

-2-

15th June, 1979

d)

for the time being refugees should not be detained, but should be loosely administered in such a way that touch was not lost with them.

3.

You will appreciate that with 52, 000 refugees here and the number increasing at roughly a thousand a day accommodation problems are mounting. We are however meeting this in a variety of ways

a)

by expanding existing temporary accommodation in existing camps, etc;

b)

c)

by renting whole industrial buildings due to the surplus of such buildings in the new towns, and adapting them for use as accommodation; and,

by considering the development of new areas for camps, etc.

Even so we are still only just keeping pace with demand. We have not been able to reduce the number in the Government Dockyard much below 9-10, 000 or in the western anchorage to much below 4, 000 people on any one day. In other words we are bringing additional accommodation space on stream at the rate of about 1, 000 a day.

4. We remain alive to the problems which will result once we enter the typhoon season. We have contingency plans for dealing with those in ships. and in small boats, but even without typhoons their situation remains a matter of concern to those of us grappling with this difficult problem.

CC

wer

Youss

buni.

(L. M. Davies)

Secretary for Security

D. C. Bray, Esq., CMG, CVO, H. K. Office London

UKMIS Geneva

UN Department, FCO

CONFIDENTIAL